Steve Dii

JF-Expert Member

Steve Dii

JF-Expert Member

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was wounded in a gun and suicide bomb attack after an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, a party security official and police said.

Mr. Zero

JF-Expert Member

Mr. Zero

JF-Expert Member

The blast happened by an entrance to a park
A suspected suicide attack at a rally of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has left at least 15 people dead, police say.
A PPP spokesman has told the BBC that Ms Bhutto was injured. It is not clear how badly. She had just addressed the rally in the town of Rawalpindi.

National and provincial assembly elections are due on 8 January.

In October some 130 people were killed in an attack on Ms Bhutto's cavalcade when she returned to the country.

It was one of the worst incidents of violence in a year of deteriorating security in Pakistan.

'Deafening sound'

Thursday's blast happened at one of the entrance gates to the Liaquat Bagh park in Rawalpindi.

Benazir Bhutto on the campaign trail

PPP spokesman Farahtullah Babar said Ms Bhutto was only some 50 metres away when the bomb exploded, the Associated Press news agency reports. "She had just crossed the gate when we heard a deafening sound."

Mr Babar said that Ms Bhutto was safe, but subsequently PPP party members have said that Ms Bhutto was injured in the blast and taken to hospital.

Ms Bhutto returned from self-imposed exile in October after years out of Pakistan where she had faced corruption charges.

Her return was the result of a power-sharing agreement with President Musharraf in which he granted an amnesty that covered the court cases she was facing.

Since her return relations with Mr Musharraf have broken down.

On the day of her return she led a motor cavalcade through the city of Karachi. It was hit by a double suicide attack that left some 130 dead.

The PPP has the largest support in the country.

Earlier on Thursday at least four people were killed ahead of an election rally that Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was preparing to attend close to Rawalpindi

Steve Dii

JF-Expert Member

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide bombing that also killed at least 20 others at a campaign rally, a party aide and a military official said.

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

A senior military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, confirmed that Bhutto had died.

Her supporters at the hospital began chanting "Dog, Musharraf, dog," referring to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf. Some of them smashed the glass door at the main entrance of the emergency unit, others burst into tears.

Mr. Zero

JF-Expert Member

Mr. Zero

JF-Expert Member

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide attack, according to media reports.

Geo TV quoted her husband saying the politician had died following a bullet wound in the neck.

Bhutto is helped from her vehicle following the October 18 suicide attack on her motorcade.

1 of 2 The suicide attack left at least 14 dead and 40 injured, Tariq Azim Khan, the country's former information minister, told CNN in a telephone interview.

The attacker is said to have detonated a bomb as he tried to enter the rally where thousands of people gathered to hear Bhutto speak, police said.

Bhutto is said to have been leaving the rally when the attack occurred and was taken to a hospital in an unconcious state, the Geo TV report said.

Earlier, a spokesman for Bhutto told CNN she was safe and taken away from the scene.

Video from the scene of the blast broadcast from Geo TV showed wounded people being loaded into ambulances.

Up to 20 people are dead, the report said.

Earlier, four supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif died when members of another political party opened fire on them at a rally near the Islamabad airport Friday, local police said.

Several other members of Sharif's party were wounded, police added.

While President Pervez Musharraf has promised free and fair parliamentary elections next month, continued instability in the tribal areas and the threat of attack on large crowds has kept people from attending political rallies and dampened the country's political process.

Campaigners from various political groups say fewer people are coming out to show their support due to government crackdowns and the threat of violence.

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At least 136 people were killed and more than 387 wounded on October 18 when a suicide bomber attacked Bhutto's slow-moving motorcade. The former PM returned to the country after eight years of self-imposed exile to a massive show of support in the southern port city of Karachi.

Bhutto called it "an attack on democracy" and vowed it would not deter her political campaign.

Today's violence come less than two weeks ahead of January parliamentary elections and as many days after President Pervez Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency he said was necessary to ensure the country's stability.

Critics said Musharraf's political maneuvering was meant to stifle the country's judiciary as well as curb the media and opposition groups to secure more power.